Says his loyalty is to the nation’s future, not Donald Trump!
Good news, Madison WI progressives. You can recharge your Teslas without being hectored by the Raging Grannies. Elon Musk has crossed swords with Donald Trump. Says his Big Beautiful (Budget) Bill is “a disgusting abomination.” Not a lot of nuance there.
Bad News, MAGA cultists. Like Musk, Wisconsin’s most influential Republican has broken with Donald Trump on that budget bill. Unlike Musk, Sen. Ron Johnson has a vote.
With the aid of his famous graphs and charts, Sen. Johnson told Republicans at state convention May 17 that the budget bill would balloon the federal debt by $3.7 in 10 years. (“The ugly truth about the Big Beautiful Bill.”)
“There’s no amount of pressure that President Trump can apply to me that exceeds the pressure I feel, the promises I made to our children’s future,” the Budget Committee member told the Milwaukee Press Club last week, as reported here.
“My loyalty is to the future of this country.” — U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-WI
Spending some political capital
Johnson is reported to have Republican allies in Senators Rand Paul, Rick Scott, and Mike Lee. Figure all minority Democrats will vote against the bill in a chamber divided 53 to 47. But do Democrats want to risk a budget that spends less? Once again, we have to give it to the Founders. They created an upper house that would be less susceptible to the passions of the moment. Ron Johnson is in the middle of his third six-year term, he’s not running for President, made his fortune, doesn’t need a pardon from Trump or his blessings to get re-elected. And given the toxicity of Trump’s endorsements of recent statewide candidates, may not want them.
Johnson has built up considerable street cred with his party, coming out of the Tea Party in 2010 to defeat then-incumbent Russ Feingold, a progressive’s progressive. Johnson is a skeptic of climate change, fought ObamaCare, questioned Covid vaccines, and said Joe Biden was “unfit for office” — in 2020! Investigated Hunter Biden’s influence peddling. Equivocal on Trump‘s stolen election claims, although he voted to ratify the election. They are frequent golfing partners.
→ BTW: The BBB as passed by the House does not “cut Medicaid.” It imposes new work requirements to childless Medicaid recipients aged 19 to 64 and aren’t disabled. Also prohibits benefits to illegal immigrants.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Wonder if even hardline MAGA cultists have the stones to pelt Sen. Johnson with their schoolyard names — “RINO,” “Globalist,” “Deep State operative.” The greater test is whether President #47 can fake some humility. If he tries to insult the bill to passage, like he did John McCain, he will be a L.O.S.E.R. And lose some major mojo.
22 responses to “None dare call RoJo a RINO”
Its interesting that neither Johnson nor Paul have considered that allowing the tax cuts, that already increased the deficit, to expire, might be as good an idea as cutting spending. Any realist looking at the US fiscal situation will recognize that both spending cuts and revenue increases will be needed to eliminate an annual $1.5 trillion dollar deficit. And then we can talk about reducing the debt already incurred. Right.
Cuts to the tax RATE do not equal cuts in tax receipts, nor do they represent an exact counterbalance to cuts in spending. Cuts to the tax rate often produce MORE tax receipts. You can look it up.
The previous tax cuts that are up for renewal definitely contributed to the current towering deficit. You can look it up. Further, the reason they are expiring was to make their cost lower for the 2017 tax bill. Just like the tax cuts in the current bill are set to expire in 2026. You can look that up too. Playing games with the budget is a time honored tradition. And is one of the reasons we such an enormous national debt. At some point someone’s gonna need to pay the piper. Yeah, that’s me and you.
So you’re saying fewer tax receipts were collected after the rate cuts? Applesauce. Please show me the tax year where the IRS collected fewer tax receipts than the year before…ever. Talk about playing games with numbers. There have never been cuts that reduced tax receipts in total. The burden was merely shifted around. We have never had a revenue problem. And that’s because spending has always outpaced it, usually by a mile. Unlike receipts, the spending is never shifted around. It is simply added to. Nothing ever gets eliminated. Tax RATE cuts and spending hikes are NOT equal contributors to deficits. Get back to me the next time the government takes in less less money than the year before. Then we’ll see the effect of “tax cuts.”
Unfortunately you’re missing the larger point here. My point was that true deficit and debt reduction will require both spending cuts and revenue increases. As you know revenue increases come from a variety of factors independent of tax rates. If you have a solution to the deficit and debt problem, please share it. As you’re aware, it’s pretty intractable with both parties contributing to the problem and refusing to take responsibility for it. The latest big beautiful bankruptcy bill further demonstrates that by adding to the problem.
I’m not missing anything; I just disagree that tax increases are an essential element of fixing the problem. You keep insisting that spending and taxing are merely two sides of the same coin. both things that result in deficits and that they just need to be “balanced,” without regard to the difference between confiscating the wealth produced by others and redistributing that wealth. If you want to “grow” your way out of the problem, raising taxes is not the way IMHO.
Gotcha. Well I’m definitely not a believer in the Laffer curve and it’s pretty well been disproven, but I understand what you believe. I do not believe we can grow our way out of our disastrous fiscal situation but I totally understand why it’s appealing. I guess we’ll see who’s right eventually since there’s no question you have congress and the president on your side.
Sorry, here’s a reply to you:
https://www.crfb.org/papers/analysis-cbos-march-2025-long-term-budget-outlook
Patrick, perhaps you should chew on this analysis for a while:
https://www.crfb.org/papers/analysis-cbos-march-2025-long-term-budget-outlook
Mark, you seem to think I don’t believe the debt is a problem, I do, and it is. The first sub headline in your link there is, “Spending Growth Will Continue to Outpace Revenue.” That sounds suspiciously like my post, “We have never had a revenue problem. And that’s because spending has always outpaced it…”
And please direct me to the link where the Laffer curve has been “pretty much disproven.” Even Obama’s economic team determined the optimal tax rate to produce the highest RECEIPTS was in the 34-38% range with anything higher producing less tax revenue. There’s an old saying that we CPAs have about tax rates: “When people think the tax rates are too high, they make their own tax rate.”
But all that aside, I’d like to make establish a set of definitions for the purposes of blog post comments.
Tax cut – This only occurs when the proposed statute in question, results in less tax collected over the previous year.
Spending cut – This only occurs when the proposed spending is less than was expended in the previous year.
What is commonly called a tax cut, is usually a tax rate cut, but can also be an exemption or deduction that lowers taxes for one favored group. The taxes are shuffled around but collecting less money is not an option. And as we all know, spending cuts are nothing more than a cut in the anticipated GROWTH of spending, which is meaningless. And if some stupid government boondoggle is exposed and actually shut down, it just means more room in next year’s budget for whatever Bernie and AOC can dream up.
Thanks Patrick, I suspect we probably agree on more than we disagree. I don’t disagree that lower tax rates can boost growth, I do question whether the increased growth will produce greater revenue than the cost of the tax (or tax rate) cut. I guess what I’m mainly trying to say here is: we have a tremendously intractable spending and debt issue. And I don’t see nearly any of our elected officials taking it seriously, the most recent tax bill being the best example I can produce! I’ve used this calculator to play around with all our variables and it’s quite clear to me that we can’t cut spending in a reasonable way to eliminate annual deficits and begin to pay down the accumulated debt. Honestly it feels like you and are are debating where we move the deck chairs on the Titanic, and I don’t mean that disrespectfully at all; I just don’t see any real solutions on the horizon until there is an actual debt crisis. Or social security funding crisis, or medicare funding crisis. In short: until we’re backed against the wall and the guns are aimed at us. I appreciate your reasoned replies; I wish others were as willing to broach the topic! Thank you! Oh, and for that calculator (it’s pretty eye opening, and yes, we can debate their underlying assumptions but hey, it’s a starting point!): https://www.crfb.org/debtfixer
Blaska wrote that RoJo “questioned Covid vaccines.” He did much more than that. He hopped on the bandwagon of science dissemblers! I have liked a lot of what RoJo has done, but he has joined the Congressional Flake Caucus when it comes to the pandemic. Read the details here: https://stevensclark.typepad.com/coronavirus_news_and_view/2024/01/vaccine-disinformation-moves-to-congress.html
It’s pretty common knowledge the covid vaccine was not very effective and set you up for worse infections subsequently. I see fom your blog you subscribe to the “wet market” origin for covid. I’ll bet you liked mandatory masking as well.
What medical journals or resources are you getting the “pretty common knowledge the covid vaccine was not very effective and set you up for worse infections subsequently.”
None of that is remotely true. These are assertions of fringe groups that have zero scientific or medical foundation.
Check out RFK Jr’s book. Plenty of documentation there.
And don’t get me wrong: Our fundamental understanding and ability to manipulate the human immune system is one of the biggest scientific discoveries in human history. I just think that the effectiveness of this particular vaccine was overblown and the risks were under sold.
Kooter: checking out RFK Jr’s book will just increase the ignorance level of the average human. The man is certifiably nuts. Maybe the heroin and brain worm did the trick. Just look at the recent MAHA report, really bad science, especially using studies that were never done, and citing authors that didn’t write them. You need a better source.
“Medicaid work requirements are designed to trip people up, and then blame them for failing”, according to the National Health Law Program.
Low-wage jobs are often transitory and unstable by nature; a supervisor or foreman may arbitrarily reduce hours.
People living in rural areas may have difficulty finding transportation to and from jobs; they may already have an underlying medical condition.
Work and documentation issues would generate huge paperwork hassles for administrators and medical personnel, costing precious time and money.
The Big Ugly Bill is a big ugly wolf in sheep’s clothing.
On the money ANON. Require more paperwork, regulations. Then close offices, fire or lay-off federal workers. If you have a problem, call 1_800-your screwed. try calling for help with a claim. Then they wonder why gop townhalls turn into instant s#$tshows.
Blaska’s post and posters have turned into a Socialist Sheitshow. RonJo is the Man after he awoke to the Ukraine spending disaster. I would vote for him in a heart beat now. Interesting how the flu disappeared during the covid paranoia. Keep shooting up your kids with the “recommended” doses of poison. Brought to you by Pfizer. World wars are usually initiated by economics. China wants their $$. Aircraft carriers will be death zones off the China Sea. Who is fooling who. We were sold down the river many moons ago.
Sqire is getting more Progressive by the screed. I’m a fan of Tim Scott, RoJo and especially of DJT.
Trump has intoduced a new world trade order, passed the first budget on his watch, protected his tax cuts for the middle class and confounded our enemies, foreign and domestic.
He has attacked waste fraud, and bloated government.
Let it all play out for a year. Given his guts and successes I’ll wait to see GDP in a year or so. We must grow our way out of much of our debt but first we must address our spending. No one has done that faster than TRUMP! you magnificent bastard.
Old Baldy: read the book and review the cited studies FIRST, before you claim its junk science.
Koot: I didn’t claim his book was junk science. But I have heard RFK Jr and trump et al praise it with nonsense, utter BS, and dangerous jabber.. So my statement stands. I did say the recent MAHA report that came out of his shop was junk,…beyond junk science. Citing studies that were never done, citing legitimate scientists for studies that didn’t exist, etc, etc.. That would get any college student tossed out of any respectable University. Well maybe not trump U. But I guess the MAHA report is just another symptom of the dumbing down of America. Another one is rojo, considered by his peers as one of the dumbest senators on the Hill.